Just do it!

 Christ in all the scriptures

Hearken and do!   Deuteronomy 4v1-6

The summing up of the verses is as follows: "Keep therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of all nations..."-v6.

God has spoken; He is speaking through His word, what is to be our response?  When the Almighty speaks, the angels in His presence do His bidding; even the demon spirits know this.  They know that what He says will come to pass regardless of the passage of time.  We, human beings, are so slow to respond to His word.  We dare not gloss over these few verses, for they go to the heart of things...namely our attitude to the word of the living God, which is our attitude to God Himself.

Do not tamper with the word of God

He begins with a warning.  "Do not add to or diminish the word!"-4v2, it is God's word plus or minus nothing; the words of the eternal and all wise God need no embellishment from us.   The bible ends with the same warning, the warning of Jesus Himself, to the churches, and through them to the world, "For I testify to every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book."  This ratifies the warning of Moses to the people of Israel.  Jesus accused the leaders of Israel of tampering with God's word through their traditions, which had the effect of nullifying the word of God (refer Mark 7v13; there are good traditions, but those which conflict with the word of God are dangerous.  God's word is complete and authoritative; altering it distorts the message.  We are called to interpret it, not rewrite it to suit our delusions.  Paul wrote, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness...."2nd Timothy 3v16.  

Warnings against altering scripture are found throughout:

 Deuteronomy12v32, "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it".  

Joshua 1v7, "Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand nor to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest".  

Proverbs 30v5-6, "Every word of God is pure: He is a shield to them that put their trust in Him.  Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar". 

It is the way of Satan to corrupt God's word.  His first appearance in scripture finds him questioning and distorting the word of God, "Hath God said...?  In the account of the temptation of Christ in Matthew 4 and Luke 4 he quotes (rather misquotes) Psalm 91v11/12; he omits from v11 "to keep thee in all thy ways"; then he adds in v12, "at any time", thus both adding to, and diminishing from the word and distorting its meaning.  In the same way his emissaries pervert God's word-Peter spoke of "wresting scripture"-2nd Peter 3v16; Paul in Galatians 1v7 of those who would "pervert the gospel of Christ"; The Lord accused the prophets in Jeremiah 23v36 of "perverting the words of the living God"; In Matthew 23v13-36 Jesus described the Pharisees of rank hypocrisy for their misinterpretation and misapplication of scripture.  In modern times, many who profess to know God have exalted the teachings of men to the same level as the word of God, and the effect has been to cancel the word of God. 

What is the answer?  In Isaiah chapter 66v1-4, God, speaking from heaven, and remonstrating with Israel, says in the face of their perverted ways, "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word".  It is to abandon the words of men which conflict with the word of God, and our own thoughts, and humbly submit to Him.

Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves

So wrote the apostle James in chapter 1v21-27 0f his epistle.  There is a danger we can become sermon tasters, running around after our favourite speakers, treating them like spiritual celebrities.  All the while failing to make the living word live in us.

"Behold I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.  Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations"-4v6.

Keep them...do them...it is not enough to know them, the word of God must become practical in our lives.  This is the greatest wisdom, and the greatest testimony to the world in which we live and move. Jesus is our prime example, He was the embodiment of His teaching.  Luke described his gospel in Acts 1v1 as a "treatise of all that Jesus began to do and to teach".  Note DO AND TEACH!  Note also, He commissioned them in Acts 1v8, not only to witness to the world, but to BE WITNESSES UNTO ME! Betimes the emphasis is to witness by word of mouth, but the witness of a life is greater.  We've heard the worldly saying, "We can't hear what they are saying for seeing what they are doing".  Our lives, our loyalty to the Lord, must match our lips.  Testimony fails if we are only preaching and not practising.  How many times have we discovered gospel efforts failing because of the "bad report of them which are without? (refer 1st Timothy 3v7).  We must be witnesses of Him to others, that means represent Him to the unbelieving world.  This is the greatest testimony of all.

Jesus said, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them".  The present world is crying out for Christians who are Christian in character.  This is in the gift of every one of us, to hear our neighbours, and our workmates say, he/she is a real Christian.  What do our family, our friends, our fellows think of Christ because of us.  Will they say, in the language of this chapter, "Surely these people are a wise and understanding people".  That is the greatest drawing power on earth, when others seek the Saviour because of you!  They want to follow Him, because they want to follow you.

Next we shall consider our special relationship with God.